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OUR DOMESTIC POLICY. 





SPEECH OF HON. J. K. GIDDINGS, 



ON THE 

REFERENCE OE TPIE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 



Made, December 9, 1850, in Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, 



Mr. GiDDiNfts said, that from the commence- 
ment of the Government, it had been the practice 
to discuss the political character of the President's 
Message, on motion to refer it to the several ap- 
propriate committees. 

I am ("^aid he) the more anxious to avail myself 
of the present occiision to speak of that portion 
which relates to our domestic policy, in conse- 
quence of the rumors which inform us that the 
present Fugitive Liw is not to be repealed or dis- 
cussed at this session of Congress. That portion 
of the Message which relates to our domestic pol- 
icy will be reid with great interest throughout 
the country ; and while I agree with a portion of 
the Message, there are embraced in it some mat- 
ters which I am unwilling should go to the coun- 
try tacitly endorsed by my silence. 

For the frankness and candor with which the 
President avows his positions upon the most in- 
teresting questions now agitating the public mind, 
I tender hira my thanks. It was due to himself, 
to his political friends, and to the country, that 
his views on these questions should be distinctly 
avowed ; that the nation should understand dis- 
tinctly whether be is for or ai:f;i,ist this Fugitive 
Law, now so odious throughout the free States. 

Before I go farther, I wish to say. that I heartily 
.approve the doctrine which the President lays 
Sown respecting the exercise of his veto power. I 
regard it as the doctrine of the Constitution. It 
is true, however, that it overthrows and wholly 
discards the avowed policy of the party which 
elected him. That party avowed its doctrine to 
be. that the veto power should never be exercised, 
except when the bill presented for the President's 
approval was clenrhj unconstitutionaL 

This doctrine the President repudiates, and 
goes as far in the support of that prerogative as 
Jack,*on, or Tyler, or Polk. I approve this inde- 
pendence, this casting aside the trammels of party. 
I am now curious to see how many of those friends 
will turn round and go with the President in this 
change of doctrine. 

But. by looking at the latter part of the Mes- 
sage, it becomes evident that the President in- 
tends the country shall understand that he will 
veto any bill for the repeal of this Fugitive Law. 
To do that, while h .Iding to the doctrines on 
which he was elected, would have been palpably 
inconsistent. In order, therefore, to make a show 
of consistency, he must first repudiate this impor- 
tant doctrine of his party. As to the morality of 
this decaption, I forbear to make any remarks. 

The boldness with which the President avows 
his friendship to the Fugitive Law, is aot only 
BucU & Blauchard, Printers. 



commendable, but should entitle him to the thanks 
of the whole North, as well as of the whole South. 

When the vote was taken upon that bill, there 
was found north of Mason and Dixon's line only 
three Mlii^s in this body who possessed the moral 
courage to meet the odium of voting for its pas- 
sage. From the day of that vote, until the read- 
ing of this Message, the Whig press of the North, 
with nearly unanimous voice, repeated and re- 
iterated this fact, in order to exonerate their party 
from the odium of that measure, and to place the 
responsibility of its enactments upon their politi- 
cal opponents. The Message meets and exposes 
this unmanly subterfuge, and boldly defies the 
odium attached to this measure. A short time 
will determine how many Northern Whigs will 
now face about at the bidding of the Executive, 
and shire with him the unenviable fame of sus- 
taining and continuing an enactment which is a 
libel upon all that is called Law. These chins^es, 
sir, may prove inconvenient to the youngf r mem- 
bers of the party — to those who have had but lit- 
tle experience ; but to those who have been ac- 
customed to follow the 1-aders of that party, these 
political summersets must have become familiar. 

Most of our Whig editors of the North have 
assured their readers that the feelings, and con- 
science, and judgment of the President were op- 
posed to this Fugitive Law. This Message will 
teach them that he thinks his own thoughts, and 
speaks his own wishes, and acts upon his own 
ju.igment : and that it is for them to turn round 
and swallow their words, and go in ibr a continu- 
ance of this law, which they have so loudly de- 
nounced, or they will be read out of the party. 

Sir, had the President avowed his desire for the 
passage of this Law, prior to his election in 1S4S, 
how many votes, think you, he would have re- 
ceived in the free States ? I think they would 
have been few. At that time, he was represented 
as a friend of Freedom, a supporter of Northern 
rights, and devoted to the Cause of Humanity. 
Upon these principles he was sustained in the 
North. But no sooner were the clods adjusted 
upon the grave of his predecessor, than we were 
informed that he had abandoned every doctrir.e 
in relation to Slavery which his party had main- 
tained pending his election. He adopted the en- 
tire programme of measures announced in the 
Senate by the present Secretary of Stute, on the 
7th of March last. His influence was exerted 
for the delivery of some fifty thousand square 
miles of free territory to Texas and to Slavery — to 
pay Texas ten million dollars, to hire her to ab- 
stain from driving our army from our westeia 



--^sij^^ % rr^-'-rv:, y* 



«s 



^.-.-..^.^^tectjtofy, and froth dissolving the Union. He was mon sense of mankind. While the Southern mea 
^ ^ n /aver of the nagsige of laws to organize Gov- are thus seizing Northern freemen, enslaving and 
^.jl^Cexsnments in our Territories, without excluding brutalizing them, they turn round and Gallon us to 



Slavery j and he was in favor of this Fugitive 
Law. 

No man had ever come into the Presidential 
Chair, who so unceremoniously cast aside and re- 
pudiated the important pledges of his friends and 
his party. No public man of high standing, from 
the free States, has so suddenly and so boldly 
abjured the Cause of Freedom, and, before the 
world, pledged fealty to the Slave power, saving 
and excepting his Secretary of State, whose coun- 
sels he appears to have adopted. , 

Eut in this boldness, the manly frankness with 
which the President announc 's this change of 
position, and tacitly calls upon his former friends 
to follow him, may teach us the propriety of here- 
after understanding the principles of our Presi- 
dential candidates //^fore we vote for them, rather 
than undergo the mortification of those party 
changes and couutermarchings. The public will 
watch with much interest to see how many of his 
party frien:ls will change their position, in order 
to stand with him in favor of this Fugitive Law, 
and of Slavery. 

The Piesident informs us that the Constitution 
has made it his duty to '• ta^s car'; that the Jnics he 
faithfully exfXiitedP All are aware that such is 
made his duty. But how has he performed it ? He 
has seen the mails violated in South Carolina and 
other States, robbed of newspapers which do not 
suit the taste of their people, and the laws of Con- 
gress held in contempt and trampled upon. This 
is done by his own officers, who hold their ap- 
pointments at his will ; but, sir, has he ousted 
such men from office ? We have yet to learu that 
he has even reproved them, much less has he hint- 
ed at these things in this Message. He sees the 
free colored citizens of New England, and indeed 
of nearly all the free States, seized, imprisoned, 
and sold into bondage, by Southern men. He is 
aware that hundreds and pt^rhaps thousands of 
free boru Northern citizens now pine in South- 
ern chains: he witnesses this transcendent out- 
rage upon the Laws, upon the Constitution, and 
upon Humanity, in perfect silence ; he does not 
even hint at their existence. He has seen the 
agents of Massachusetts driven by mob violence 
from South Ca/olina and Louisiana, whfn sent 



leave our employments, give chase, and arrest and 
return their fugitive slaves. While violating our 
National Compact in its most vital features, they 
ask us not merely to observe and keep our stipu- 
lations, but to go far beyond our covenants to up- 
hold their slavery. Now, sir, these Southern men 
have no claim whatever on us to observe the com- 
pact, while they disregard and ti-ample upon it. 
Such are the dictates of Law, and of justice, and 
of the Common Sense of Mankind. A compliance 
with such demand would constitute us the mere 
subsidiaries, the appendages, of Southern slavery. 
This feeling has thus far been suppressed by our 
intelligent people, hoping that Congress would 
relieve them from the position in which they have 
long been placed. If this Fugitive Law be kept 
in force, and Congress shall exert its power and 
influence to degrade our people, I, sir, will not 
predict the consequences. They may be read in 
our p.nst history. One thing may be regarded as 
admitted truth — while Ohio Freemen are held in 
Southern chains, the people of the northern por- 
tion of that State will not arrest, nor return, fugi- 
tive slaves. I speak for no other portion of the 
country. Eut tlie South and the North, the East 
and the West, may understand, that, while the 
inhabitants of our State shall be held in slavery, 
(and there are many there.) few, tery ftic, slaves 
will return to bondage from that section of coun- 
try where I reside. 

Sir, suppose a man born among us, educated in 
our schools, baptised in our churches, professing 
our religion, but who has been seized and held 
in Southern slavery, should make his escape, and 
revisit the scenes of his birth and childhood : but, 
while quietly and peaceably among us, the baying 
of human bloodhounds should be heard upon his 
track, and the whole army of slave-catchers, in- 
cluding certain high dignitaries who procured the 
passage of the Fugitive Law, should be seen com- 
ing in hot pursuit, with handcuffs, and chains, and 
fetters, prepared and clanking in their hands — 
do you, sir, think they would tak^; him, and fetter 
him, in the presence of our people. ;=,nd drag him 
back to a land of sighs and tears? Sir, if the 
President, or members of this body, or that class 
of clergymen who are preaching that obedience to 



there to sustain the legal rights of the citizens of this law is a religious duty, believe this can be 



that State now held in slavery. He knew that 
no Northern State nor individual could rescue 
those citizens from the chains of servitude. Upon 
outrages, more aggravated thun any that have 
ever occurred under this Government, he makes 
no comment. Sir, the House and the country 
must see that the only sympathy exhibited in the 
Message is for Slavtry — he has none for Freedom. 
He recommends us not to repeal the Fugitive Law, 
but recommends no law to sustain the liberties of 
our own people, or to redeem those freemen who 
mourn in Southern bondage; still he assures us 
that, "in our domestic policy, the Constitution 
shall be his guide,-' and that "he regnnU all its 
provisions as cjually bindingJ' That this declara- 
tion is entirely erroneous is too obvious to require 
further exposure. 

Mr. Chairman, our opposition to the Fugitive 
Law is bastd upon the soundest principles of eth 



done, they had better study the character of our 
population more thoroughly. 

Under that law, such cases may frequently oc- 
cur; and whether there be a neighborhood north 
of Mason and Dixon's line, where such a freeman 
can be taken back to a land of whips and chains, 
I leave for others to judge ; I will not argue the 
point. 

Eut the President is not satisfied with quoting 
the words of the Constitution ; he closes the par- 
agraph with the following sentence: 

" You^ gentlemen, and the country, may be as- 
sured, that to tilt utmost of my ability, and to the eztent 
of the power vested in me, I shall at all times, and in 
all places, talce care that the laivs he faithfully exe- 
cuted? 

This language is understood by the House and 
by the country. No one can mistake its import. 
It is the language of menace — of intimidation. He 



iC3 and of law, as well as the dictates of the com- distinctly avows that, " to the extent of the power 



■s vested in kim, h". mill see '' this infamous law exe- 
"^^ cuted. The power of the army and the navy is 
^ Tested in the President. This power he assures 
^ us will be used to shoot down Northern freemen, 
0*^if necessary to enforce this law. This attempt at 
tJ menace is unworthy of the President. It is un- 
. 'becoming his station. 1 feel pained while con- 
■' templating the position in which the President 
• has thus placed himself No language could have 
^ been more destructive to his influence. This 
taunting menvice should never have been address- 
ed to freemen — to men who understand the Con- 
stitution and know their rights. I have shown 
some reasons why our people of Northern Ohio 
will not ohtij that law. The President may speak 
to them of the ^^ power v.itttil in him'' — of the 
army and navy ; and he may tell them that he 
will use the whole military power of the nation at 
all li/ms and in all placts to enforce this detestable 
law: but, sir, they will hurl back defiance both 
at him and his army. He may senl his troops — 
his Swiss guards of slavery; he may put all the 
machines of hum*n butchery in operation; he 
may drench our free land with blood ; he may 
entitle hin;self to the appellation of a second 
" Haynau ;"' but he will ntcer comp':! fh':?)i to oh'-.y 
that law. They will govern themselves. They 
wiil obey every constitutional enactment; but 
they will discard and repudiate this Fugitive bill. 
1 speak what I feel before God and man. I speak 
what every enlightened statesman must feel and 
admit, when I' say that no free, enlightened, and 
independent people ever was, or ever will be. gov- 
erned by the bayonet and the sword. No, sir. I 
will say to the President with all kindness, but 
with unhesitating confidence, our fopU wiU never 
be compelled oy the bayonet or the cimton.! or in any 
other maiiMr. to lend any aid or assistance in execut- 
ing that ii'fiinions law; nor will they obey it. 
The President should have learned ere this that 
public scDtiment, with an enlightened and pa- 
triotic people, is stronger than armies or navies ; 
that he himself is but the creature of the people's 
wiil — their servant — elected to execute their pur- 
poses. In the enactmeut of this law. their feel- 
ings were not consulted, their honor was disre- 
garded, and their wishes were treated with scorn. 
Sir, a large portion of the Northern people were 
not represented in this body at the pass.igeof that 
law. Their servants fled from this Hall, and left 
the interests, the rights, and the honor of their 
constituents to be disposed of hj slaveholders and 
their obsequious allies. This law •• was conceived 
in sin,'" and literally '• brought forth in iniquity."' 
It is due to our Southern friends that we should 
inform them distinctly that the law cannot ■auA will 
not be enforced. Our people, sir, know what con- 
stitutes law. This enactment 1 chII a law merely 
for convenience, because our language furnishes 
no proper term in which to characterize it. It 
h-is the form, but is entirely destitute of the 
spirit — the essence of law. It command.'! the per- 
petration of crimes,' which no human enactment 
can justify. In passing it, Congress overstepped 
the limits of civil government, and attempted to 
usurp powers which belong only to God. In this 
attempt to involve our people in crimes forbidden 
by inspiration, by every impulse of humanity, 
and to command one portion of the people to 
■wage a war upon another. Congress was guilty of 
tyranny unexampled. This enactment is beyond 



the power, outside of the duties, of human gov- 
ernment , it imposes no obligation to commit the 
crimes it commands, it can justify no one for com-, 
mitting them. For this reason, the people n-ill 
not ohty it. Nor is this doctrine new, either in 
theory or in practice. In every Stute of the 
Union statutes have been enacted which never 
have been and never co'dd be enforced. They 
are so opposed to the public sense of justice and 
propriety, that they remain a dead letter from 
the day of their enactment. Congress has enacted 
many such laws, which no President ever could or 
ever will enforce. This Fugitive Law must be re- 
pealed, or. if it remain unrepealed, it will remain 
a dead letter. Of the fifteen thous.md fugitives 
in the free States, probably not ten have been re- 
turned to bondage, and I doubt whether ten more 
will ever be returned. 

Mr. Chairman, I now wish to call the attention 
of the House to the assertion of an important 
principle in which i most heartily concur. The 
President soys : 

" Every citizen who truly loves the Constitu- 
tion, and desires the continuance of its existence 
and its blessings, will resolutely and firmly resist 
any interference in those domestic afl^'airs, which 
the Constitution has clearly and unequivocally 
left to the exclusive authority of the States.'' 

This, Mr. Chairman, is the doctrine of the Con- 
stitution, the doctrine of its framers. It is the 
doctrine of the Free-Soilers. If there be any one 
feature in the Constitution, which the whole his- 
tory of ats adoption has made plain, it is that sla- 
very is a S'cte institution, ov'.r which C<)n.<;ress has 
no control — with which this Federal Government 
has no legitini'ite powers to intir/ere. Yfle, sir, of the 
North, will not be constrained, even by your Fu- 
gitive Law, to interfere with it. The slavery of 
Virginia belongs to her. If she possess the power 
and the disposition to uphold it, we cannot put it 
down or abolish it. If she sees fit to abolish it, 
we have no power to interfere to su.-tain it. 

I have often defined the views of an!i-slavery 
men and of Free-Soilers on this subject — others 
have often done it ; yet we are misapprehended 
and constantly misrepresented. That clause of 
the Message now under consideration was intend- 
ed to impute to us a purpose, a desire, to interfere 
with Southern slavery. That iden. false and 
unfounded, has been asserted and reiterated for 
years. The President should have been better 
informed. For the hundredth time I repeat that 
Congress nor this Federal Government have any 
more power to interfere with the slavery of the 
Southern Si.-ites than they have with the serfdom 
of Russia. The slave States hold their '• peculiar 
institution "' as independently of this Government 
as Prussia holds her serfs. Again, sir, this Gov- 
ernment possesses no more right to involve the 
people of the North in the support of Southern 
slavery, than it has to involve us in the support 
of PLUSsian serfdom. Congress possesses no more 
power nor right to make us the catchers of South- 
ern slaves, than of Russian serfs. 

These were the views and feelings of those who 
framed the Constitution. They never -dreamed 
of making us the catchpolls for Southern slave- 
hunters. 

Nothing could have been further from the 
thoughts of those who framed the Constitution. 
In that Convention. Mr. Gouverneur Morris said 



that '■'•he nev^r would concur hi iipltoliliii^ doyneatic 
jlaveryP So say 1, and so say our people of the 
Ivorth. We never will concur in upholding that 
institution. Mr. Morris added : '• It is a wfarious 
in<tiiu>ion. It was the curse of Heaven upon the 
'States in which it existed."' 

So we say. It is a curse upon those States, but 
the curse is thnrs^ not ours, and we will not share 
in it. Your fugitive law shall not compel ns to 
share in it. Our fathers would not consent to be 
involved in its crimes — we will not. 

Mr. Gerry of Massachusetts said : " While we 
have nothing to do with slavery in the States, we 
should be careful to lend no sanction to it." Sir, 
we will lend no sanction to it, nor shall your fu- 
gitive law compel us to sanction it. Mr. Dickin- 
son " thought it a proper subject for the General 
Government to interfere with, as it pffrcf^d onr n.a- 
tioial //cjipiiitss.'' But Southern members resisted 
this proposition. They would give to the Federal 
Government no powers to interfere with slavery, 
for any purpose. 

But 1 desire to come more directly to the clause 
relating to fuoritive slaves. When the committee 
reported the draft of a Constitution, it contained 
the clause for the arrest a7id return of fugitives 
from justice, as it now stands. They were to be 
delivered up by the Executive of the State to 
which they should flee; and this was to be done, 
also, at the expense of such State. While this 
report was under consideration, Messrs. Butler 
and Pinckney of South Carolina moved to amend 
it so as to '■'• rffjuire fugitives^ slaves, and servants^ to 
he delivtr'.d vp iike criminals?^ 

Mr. Wilson of Pennsylvania said '• This would 
oblige the Executive to do it at the public e-xpenseP 

Mr. Sherman of Connecticut '-saw no more 
propriety in the public seizing and surrendering 
a fugitive slxve or servant than a korseP And on 
these suggestions Mr. Butler withdrew his prop- 
osition. These f.icts were recorded by Mr. Mad- 
ison ; and no stronger evidence could have been 
left of the intention of the framers of the Consti- 
tution to save the freemen of the North from all 
expense, and guilt, and disgrace, of arresting fu- 
gitive slaves. The clause for the return of fugi- 
tive slaves, as it now stands, was subsequently 
adopted, with the concurrence of Mr. Wilson and 
of Mr. Sherman. It provides, that the State to 
■which the sl&ve flees shall not, by any law or 
regulation, release him from labor. " Non-inter- 
ference," between the master and slave, was their 
intention, their ulterior design. The last mem- 
ber of the sentence says of the slave, he " shall be 
delivered up on claim of the person to n-liom such ser- 
vice or labor may he dueP This language has been 
understood by some as rendering action necessary 
on the part of the people of the State to which 
the slave may have fled. This construction is 
opposed to the whole spirit of the Constitution. 
Every reader will see at once that such obligation 
is not imposed upon the Governor, nor upon the 
people of the State, nor upon any individual. 
The Supreme Court has given a cc«struction to 
this languiige which is in accordance with the in- 
tention and cl)ject of the framers of the Constitu- 
tion. We are to deliver up the fugitive slave as 
we deliver up our friends to the civil oihcer. We 
are bound to permit the master to arrest and carry 
back the slave, in the same manner that we permit 
the civil oflicer to seize our friends, under process, 
and take them to prison. 



And such was the law of 179.'"1 It followed the- 
Constitution. It saved the master from inter- 
ruption while pursuing his slave. It provided 
lines and penalties against any person who, dis- 
obeying the constitutional compact, should secrete 
or defend or rescue the slave. There the law of 
1793stopped. Itwentno farther. It gave the master 
no process under the seal of your courts, by which 
to arrest hi.s slave. It commanded no officer of this 
Government to aid the master in making such ar- 
rest. No powers of this Government were prosti- 
tuted to such degrading purposes. " Nun-iidir- 
ference'"' between the master and slave was the rule 
by which that whole law was framed. And it is 
to the honor of the Supreme Court that, in their 
construction of the Constitution and of the law, 
they have carried out this view. They have 
adopted the very idea of Mr. Wilson and Mr. 
Sherman. They declare the right of the master 
to recapture his slave to be the same as his right 
to take his property which strays into a free State. 
They construe our duties, to deliver vp the fugi- 
tive slave, to be the same as to deliver up the stray 
horse. If the horse or the slave come among us, 
we permit the owner or master to take him. But 
in neither case can the owner or master call on 
us to catch the slave or the horse. 

Neither the law of 1793, nor the Constitution, 
contemplated the organization of Northern free- 
men into a constabulary force for catching ne- 
groes. Nor did it give the master a guard and 
assistance to carry back his slave at the expense 
of the nation. Such provisions could never have 
been approved by Washington, who signed the 
law of 1793, nor by his associates who had aided 
in framing the Constitution, and who also voted 
for that law. They understood their constitu- 
tional duties. 

All who read this message must see that the 
only interference with slavery which the President 
professes to deprecate, is that which tends to 
loosen the chains of bondage; he appears to have 
no objection to that interference which rivets 
them closer. Could he have believed that the 
intelligent freemen of the North would fail to de- 
tect the palpable contradiction between that por- 
tion of the Message which deprecates interference 
with slavery, and that which urges the continu- 
ance of this law, which wms enacted for the very 
purpose of interfering in support of that institu- 
tion? 

Could any interference have been more direct 
and palpable than that which makes it the duty 
of the deputy marshal or commissioner, under a 
heavy penalty, to exert his utmost powers to ar- 
rest the fugitive ' Which gives him authority to 
call the whole power of the State to assist him ? 
Which " commands all good citizens to aid and assist 
in the prompt''' arrest and return of the trembling 
slave ? This interference the Pre-ident approves. 
It rivets tighter the chains of bondage, while we 
are all aware that he disapproved our efforts to 
exclude slavery from the free territory of New 
Mexico. But this law goes farther ; it not only 
attempts to strike down God's law, which com- 
mands us '-to feed the hungry." but it attempts to 
convert every freeman of the North into a savage. 
If a fugitive from oppression reaches my door 
amid the ragings of the storm, half clad, and be- 
numbed with cold, fainting, and weary, sick and 
in distress, and asks to warm himself by my fire, 



this law interferes, and forbids me. under heavy 
pains and penalties, to comply with his request. 
If I obey the law. I must drive him from my door 
to perish with hunger and cold. If I receive him 
to my habitation, warm him by my fire — if I feed 
him, and give him driuk. and restore him. so that 
he pursues his journey and escapes, I am subjected, 
under, this law, to a fine of one thousand dollars 
and to six months' imprisonment. This law the 
President npproif.s. and advises ua to coiiiin-te in 
force. This practice he sustains, and asks us to 
uphold. I reply, in his own language; '•^ Entry 
dtizfu mho truly loves the Covstilution will resolutely 
and firmly resist" the interference which this laro 
enjoins. 

Sir, our people will continue to feed the hun- 
gry, to clothe the naked, to visit the sick, and to 
relieve the oppressed; and no interference of this 
fugitive law will prevent this compliance with the 
dictates of our religion, with that law which came 
from God himself, and which no enactment cf 
slaveholders and doughfaces can repeal or nullify. 
I speak for no one but myself and constituents ; 
others will choose whether to obey God or the 
oppressors of mankind ; but aa for us, we will obey 
that higher law of kindness, benevolence, and 
humanity, which was implanted in the breast of 
every human being, and written upon the hearts 
and consciences of mankind, by the finger of our 
Creator. 

Mr. Chairman, the doctrine of "Non-inter- 
ference with Slavery," laid down by the Presi- 
dent, is at war with every provision of this fugi- 
tive law. If we maintain that doctrine, this law 
must remain a dead letter upon our statute book. 
He who sustains this doctrine must disobey the 
law ; for the Constitution and this law are antago- 
nisms — at war with each other. If we adhere to 
one. we must discard the other. My constituents 
will maintain the Constitution, while they will 
hold this law in contempt. Sir, from the adoption 
of the Constitution until lS41,neverwa8 this doc- 
trine of " non-interference between master and 
slave" denied by the Executive. At that time, the 
present Secretary of State, in a correspondence 
with our Minister at London, substantially 
avowed it to be the duty of this Government to 
protect Southern slave-dealers while pursuing 
their vocation, This dootrine, coming from a 
Massachusetts man, inspired his successor (Mr. 
Upshur) to maintain the same principles, while 
advocating the annexation of Texas in 1843. Up 
to 1841, 1 repeat that "non-interference between 
master and slave " was the doctrine of the North 
and of the South, of Whigs and of Democrats. 

It is true that our slaveholding Presidents at 
times lent their powers siltntJy to uphold slavery ; 
but no officer of Government t\eT avon-nd it the 
duty of Congress, or the Executive, thus to in- 
terfere, until the present Secretary of State put 
forth that construction in 184 1. I repeat that, 
from the day of adopting the Constitution until 
A. D 1841, the doctrine of '■ non-interference 
with slavery in the States'' was never denied, to 
my knowledge, by any public man of this nation ; 
and no member of this body ever attempted to 
overthrow it by argument, until the last session 
of Congress. To the gentleman from Georgia, 
[Mr. Toombs.] not now in his seat, belongs the 
honor of being the member of this House who 
boldly and publicly demanded that the powers 



and energies of this Government should 1 e pros- 
tituted to the support of slavery. The President 
and his Cabinet may adopt this new theory — but 
the People of the North will repudiate it. 

The Message further says ; '• T/i". Inw is the only 
sure protection cf the ir-.dh, mid the only efficient re- 
straint npon the stron^^^ This, sir, is said with di- 
rect reference to this fugitive slave law, to induce 
the People to execute it. It woul.l seem that the 
President intended to see how fir h*» could impose 
upon the intelligence of the public. Sir, what 
protection docs this law lend to the poor, weak, 
opprestcd, degraded slave, whose fle.sh has often 
quivered under the lash of his inhuman owner, 
whose youth has been spent in labor for another, 
whose intellect has been nearly blotted out? 
"When he seeks an asylum in a land of freedom, 
this worse than barbarous law sends the officers 
of Government to chase him down — :o carry him 
back to chains and sutfering. The People are 
constrained to become his pursuer.^. Famishing 
and fainting, he drags his weary limbs forward, 
while the whole power of the Government under 
the President's command, the army and navy, and 
all the freemen of the land, are on his track, to 
drag him back to bondage, under this law. And 
this law, the President tells us, is the only sure 
protection to that miserable slave. Does the Presi- 
dent intend to insult our intelligence? Or did 
he mean to insert in this grave document a satire 
upon this barbarous law ? 

Sir, there is not a man in this body, there is 
not an intelligent man in the free States, but 
knows, if he delivers a fugitive into the custody 
of his pursuers, that he will be carried back and 
sold to the far South ; and, ordinarily, his life 
will be sacrificed in five years, if employed on the 
sugar plantations, and in seven years on the cot- 
ton plantations. The men of the North look up- 
on this as murder, and would as soon turn out 
and cut the throat of the defenceless negro as to 
send him back to be scourged to d^ath. As soon 
would they do this as comply with a law which 
violates every principle of huoianity.and consigns 
the fugitive to a lingering death by a slow torture 
of five or seven years. The common law holds 
him who aids in a murder as guiltj' as he who 
strikes the knife to the heart of the victim. Un- 
der our law, a man is hanged if he fails to pre- 
vent a murder when it is plainly within his power 
to do so. Such a man is held guilty of the act, 
and he is hanged accordingly. 

And will any one suppose that he who assists 
in arresting and sending a fugitive slave to tor- 
ture and death, will be less guilty than he under 
whose lash the victim expires? 

Sir, I have compared this capture of a fugitive 
to a common murder. In doing that I do injustice 
to the common murderer. To c-ipture a slave and 
send him to the South to die under a torture of 
five years, is far more criminal than ordinary mur- 
der, inasmuch as it adds the guilt of torture to 
the crime of murder. 

Sir. we will not commit this crime. Let me say 
to the President, no power of Government can 
compel us to involve ourselves in such guilt. No! 
The freemen of Ohio will never turn out to chase 
the jianting fugitive — they will never be meta- 
morphosed into bloodhounds, to track him to his « 
hiding-place, and seize and drag him out, and de- 
liver him to his tormentors. They may be shot 



6 



down ; the C'lnnon and bayonet and sword may 
do their work upon them ; they may drown the 
fugitives in the blood of freemen ; but never will 
freemen stoop to the degradation of catching 
slaves. 

Let no man tell me there is not a higher law 
than this fugitive bill. We feel there is a law of 
right, a law of justice, of freedom, implanted in 
the breast of every intelligent human being, that 
bids him look with scorn upon this miscalled law. 

Sir, 1 was about to make some comparisons, but 
perhaps they may be regarded as indelicate. I, 
however, shall not hesitate to speak truth. Dur- 
ing last summer, two distinguished gentlemen of 
the same name occupied much of the public atten- 
tion. One was said to have committed murder, 
and the other to have procured the passage of this 
law. One was hanged for his crime; the other, 
for his eiforts, taken to the Executive Cabinet. 
One destroyed the life of an individual, the other 
contributed his influence for the passage of this 
law, which, if executed, must consign hundreds, 
perhaps thous^^inds, to premature graves. I, sir, 
cannot speak for others ; but for myself, I would 
rather meet my final Judge with the guilt of him 
who has gone to his last account resting upon my 
soul, than that of him who sits in yonder Cabinet. 
Sir, do you, or does any one, conceive that it is 
less criminal to take the life of one of those fugi- 
tives than it would be to slay any other individual ? 
Is not he who gives his voice and influence from 
yonder Cabinet, for the murder of those people, a^ 
gailfy as he would be to lend his voice and influ- 
ence for the murder of others ? kShall men in 
high stations, from ambitious, from corrupt mo- 
tives, lend themselvrs to the degradation, the de- 
struction, of hundreds, nay, thousands, of human 
beings, and yet be shielded from animadversion by 
their political position ? Has it come to this, that 
place and power are to be regarded as exempting 
their occupants from moral guilt, from responsi- 
bility both here and hereafter ? 

An idea appears to exist in some minds, that 
obedience to an act of Congress, however criminal 
that act may be, cannot involve the person who 
thus obeys the law in any moral guilt. In other 
words, they appear to tbink that if under this 
Fugitive Law they drive the fami.shing slave from 
their doors to perish with cold and hunger, or if 
they seize him, place the fetters upon his limbs, 
and drag him to bondage to be miissacred under 
the lash, to be murdered by slow torture, they 
will, when called to their final account, ylead this 
enactimnt in bar o/'O.'wnipotemt Jt sttce. 

That kind of theology 1 leave to those teach- 
ers who preach sermons and write pamphlets and 
newspaper essays in defence of this law — to those 
divines who hold that we, the memhers of Con- 
gress, possess the power to step betAveen God and 
our fellow-creatures, and authorize them to disre- 
gard His command and to commit crimes at which 
all the feelings of our nature revolt. Such teach- 
ings may have been received as orthodox in the 
tiinth, but they will be rejec'ed in the nimteenth 
century. 

Why, sir, no man, not even the slaveholders, 
will deny that the fugitive himself has the same 
natural and inalienable right to his liberty that 
either of us possess ; that it is his duty to main- 
tain and defend that right whenever it shall be 
in his power to do so : that it is his duty to escape 



if he can ; that if while making his way to a land 
of freedom the master interpose, and he has no 
other possible way of escape than to slay his mas- 
ter, he is bound by every obligation to himself 
and his oflspring to resort to that extremity. He 
has no right tamely to surrender up the liberty 
with which God h:is endowed him, and to con- 
sign his offspring in all coming time to degrading 
servitude. Our people so advise the fugitives : 
and the fugitives are generally armed, and prepared 
to receive their pursuers; and I am informed that 
one of them, when hard pressed recently, shot one 
of those human bloodhounds dead, and wounded 
another, and then went on his way. Sir, we nil 
fed tJiat he did right — that 7ve would have clone the 
same thing had we been in his situation. 

Some months since, there were said to hi fifteen 
thousand fugitives from labor within the free 
States, including men, women, and children ; 
many of them were born and educated among us. 
These men with their^wlves and their little ones 
were in the enjoyment of domestic life. Most of 
them had acquired or were in the way of ob- 
taining suilicieat real and personal property to 
insure them the neces.sarie.s, and even mauy of the 
luxuries, of life. They were educating their chil- 
dren, nnd becoming intelligent and useful members 
of community. Many of them belonged to our va- 
rious churches, and maintained an orderly and 
Christian deportment. 

Against these inoffensive people, the President 
and Congress have waged a barbarous and unre- 
lenting war. We have required our officers and 
the frtemen of the North, when called on, to seize 
them ; to drag them from their firesides, their 
hones, their friends, their schools and churches, 
their lands, and their flocks and herds ; to sepa- 
rate husbands and wives, parents and children, 
and consign them indiscriminately to all the hor- 
rors of slavery and of the slave trade. I hesitate 
not to say that for its barbarity that law is un- 
equalled in the history of civilized legislation. Is 
there a reflecting man who will pretend that this 
barbarous enactment imposes upon those })eople 
any moral duty to obey it? Will preachers of 
righteousness tell them to submit, to let the slave 
dealer rivet the chains upon the father, tear the 
mother from her children, and doom her to a life 
of wretchedness? Will such preachers advise 
the daughter peacefnlhj to surrender herself into 
the hands of slave-hunters, and submit to a life of 
pollution and shame? And will such men be 
called promoters of holiness and purity ? I trust 
there ore few such teachers in this American 
land. Sir, .ill good men must detest this law. 
God has no attribute which will permit him to 
look upon it except with abhorrence. 

Yet the President assures us that it ought not 
to be repealed ; that it should be kept in force : 
that these outrages should and ought to continue ; 
that he regards this law as a final settlement of 
the slave ([uestion ; and that it is wrong further 
to agitate the subject. Vain advice. Agitation 
will never cease until the law ceases. While 
such crimes are authorized by statuie, the Amer- 
ican people will not keep silence. 

The President, referring to the bill surrender- 
ing to Texas and to slavery fifty thousand 
square miles of free territory, atid paying her trn 
millions of dollars, and that allowing slavery to 
be exteiided over ]^qw Mexico and Utah, and 



to this Fugitive Law, says : '•' I believed those 
measures to have been necessary, and required by 
the circumstiuices and condition of the country" 

I rejoice, Mr. Chairman, thit he has boldly 
avowed this f.iot. Nearly the whole North be- 
lieved that he was in heart and conscience oppos- 
ed to this bill. Almost every Whig press in the 
North said plainly that the President did not 
favor this bill, but that he was coerced — that he 
signed it by compulsion. Th.it it was the Whig 
doctrine concerning the veto that compelled him 
to sign it. The President's views are now before 
the country, and he avows his position tnanfully. 
He places himself upon this law ; and here I wish 
to say to the House, that from this time we all 
know where the President is. He is in favor of con- 
timij/!^' t//is lam ; he not only places himself there, 
but his Adminstration and his party must stand 
or fail by this law. I rejoice at it ! They must 
sink or swim, live or die, stand or fall, with this 
enactment. We now know where to find the sup- 
porters of slavery and the advocates of freedom. 
Every man throughout the whole country, at the 
North and South, may now take his position, 
knowingly, with a hill knowledge of the charac- 
ter of the party with whom he acts. Those that 
support this law must consent to obey it and to 
enforce it, to the letter. 

There is no lingering doubt, no difficulty, no 
obscurity^ resting on the party who supports this 
Administration. All the Whigs throughout the 
country, (and I speak it with some degree of feel- 
ing, for I once had the plea,sure of acting with 
them, when they had principles ; then we avowed 
and acted ujion the doctrines I have stated to- 
day) — all the Whigs throughout the country 
must now feel that their unity is gone. They see 
that the party has departed from its doctrines and 
principles, and has descended, step by step, from 
its former position, until the remnant has literal- 
ly become a slave-catching party. 

The President informs us that these measures 
" were adopted in a spirit of conciliation, and for 
the purpose of conciliation." "I believe," says 
he, '' that a great majority of our fellow-citizens 
sympathize in that spirit and that purpose, and 
in the main approve it." Sir, where does the 
President find this evidence of approval in the 
popular mind ? Does he draw h'u conclusions 
from the result of the elections in Delaware. New 
Jersey, or Ohio ? 

That third State of the Union has separated 
itself forever from all men and all parties who 
would involve our people in the support of sla- 
very, or degrade them by sustaining your Fugi- 
tive Law. Does the President find consolation 
in the voice of the "Peninsular Scate." as lately 
expressed through the ballot box ? Or can he take 
pleasure in referring to the election in Wiscon- 
sin, or when he examines the result of those 
measures in his own State ? Or has the demon- 
strations in Massachusetts inspired him with 
confiienca that the popular mind is in favor of 
this law ? 

Methinks that ftfl he looks over the newly made 
graves of his political friends, and counts their 
number, and reflects upon that political cholera 
which has cut down so many of his supporters 
and advocates of this law, he might have doubted 
its popularity. Many gentlemen in this Hall, 
•who so boldly stood forth in the pride of their 



political manhood a few months since, and voted 
for these measures, are now doomed to a speedy 
departure, and the plnces that now know them, 
shall know them (politically) no more. To those 
gentlemen the language of the President can 
bring but poor consolation. 

The public meetings of the people of all parties 
throughout the free States, the spirited resolu- 
tions which they have sent forth, are but feeble 
manifestations of the popular mind. Throughout 
the North, where free schools have been encour- 
aged, and education has become general, where 
newspapers circulite and intelligence is dissemi- 
nated, there public sentiment is loud in condem- 
nation of this li'W. This feeling is increasing and 
extending, and rolling forward and gaining 
streuth and impetus, and will continue to do so 
until that law shall be repealed and numbered 
among the thing.s that were. 

Sir, if the President will look at the statute 
lately enacted by the Whigs of Vermont, he will 
be able clearly to read the '■^ hand writ in g upon the 
■h'allP The people have weiched this law in the 
balance, and it is found wanting. 

Near the close of his Message, the President 
says : 

" I c'.nnot doubt that the American people, 
bound together by kindred blood and common 
traditions, still clierish a paramount regard for 
the Union of their fathers ; and that they are 
ready to rebuke any attempt to violate its integ- 
rity, to disturb the compromises on which it is 
b;ised, or to resist the laws which have been enact- 
ed under its authority." 

As to the " Union of our fathers, I venerate it. 
There is something pleasing and solimn in the 
recollection of that Union — in the history of its 
formation, and the difficulties and dangers which 
surrounded it. But it is now nearly half a centu- 
ry since that Union ceased to exist. The pros- 
pect of commercial advantages induced us to aban- 
don it, and form a new one with Louisiana. Then, 
sir, we abandoned it, and took Florida to our em- 
brace. Then, to extend and perpetuate slavery, 
we abandoned that Union, and brought in slave- 
holding Texas, assuming her war, and carrying 
devastation, rapine, and bloodshed, to the heart 
of Mexico, in order to extend slavery. And, to 
cap the climax, you have passed this fugitive law, 
and made the citizens of Ohio and of all the free 
States the c itchpolls to Texan slave-hunters. 

It is not to be disguised that the people of the 
free States feel less attachm.ent to Texas than 
they did to the old thirteen States. We are not 
bound to them by common traditions. The Mex- 
icans and Spaniards and other foreigners of that 
State shared not in the toils nor the dangers of 
our Revolution, nor in those of our second war of 
Independence. The arrogant and supercilious 
manner in which Texas threatened to drive our 
army from New Mexico, and to dissolve the 
Union, has not served to strengthen the cords of 
affection which should have bound us together. 

But neither the President nor any other person 
will charge the North with disloyalty to the 
Union. But that portion of the sentence just 
quoted, which refers to the " attempts to disturb 
its compromise?," was intended to refer to those 
political friends with whom I act. 

Sir, those compromises left us entirely free from 
the support of slavery. By the passage of this 



fugitive law, those compromises have been dis- 
turbed, and thf3 people of the North involved in 
the degradation and guilt of sustaining slavery ; 
and, sir, in the language of the Preoident, "they 
are ready to rebuke'' those who have thus dis- 
turbed the compromises — and they will rebuke 
them. Our people, too, will resist by every con- 
stitutional meuns the execution of that law. 

This practice of attempting to sanctify every 
enormity in legislation by referring to the '• Union 
of our fuih'.rsy Yx;\8 become very common among 
a certain class of politicans; but I did not expect 
to meet with it in the Message of the President. 
It does not comport with the dignity of such a 
paper, it is almost as much out of place as it 
would be to appeal to the loyalty which our fa- 
thers anciently bore to the British crown. The 
Union of our fathers was adopted as the best 
means of preserviog the liberties, and promo- 
ting the happiuess of the people. It was abandon- 
ed for the same purpose. Even our Union with 
Texas was framed for that avowed object. A ma- 
jority of Congress thought and believed that it 
would increase the wealth and the happiness of 
the people. For the same purpose we waged a 
war with Mexico, and conquered another vast 
territory, and brought another State into the 
Union. The Union now existing will be retained 
80 long as the great mass of the people shall re- 
gard it as conducive to their interests and happi- 
ness. Yet, whenever they shall be convinced that 
it subserves the cause of oppression, that it has 
become an instrument for degrading themselves, 
another revolution will take place, and they will 
lay it aside, as our fathers did their union with 
England. They feel as the patriots of that day 
felt, that " whenever any form of Goverament 
shall fail to sustain the self-evident truth that all 
men were created equal, and are eiUkled to the enjoy- 
ment ofhfe and libtrty^'' it is the right of the peo- 
ple to lay it aside, and to '-adopt a new form of 
Government, basing its action upon such princi- 
ples as shall best promote their interests and hap- 
piness." 

But this cry of " danger to the Union" is be- 
coming understood by the people. " To save the 
Union," we annexed Texas; " to Sfive the Union," 
we paid her ten miliions of dollars; " to save the 
Union," fifty thousand square miles of territory 
which had be?n consecrated to free<iom by Mex- 
ico, and conq!^?red by our arms, were delivered 
over to Texas and to slavery ; '• to save the Union," 
the people of the free States have been compelled 
to become slavc-CAtchers : hvA Nve are now told 
that, " to save the Union," this infamous law must 
be kept ij force ; " to save the Unicu," we must 
drive *tbe famisiiiug, weary, fagilive from our 
doors, or seize h-.u:". and send him back to his pris- 
on house of boudi.ge. Sir, it has come to this ; the 
cry of '• dr'.Dger fo the Union" is now resorted to 
for the purpose, cf jusdfyiug every outrage v.pon 
the people of the North, which, the Slave Power 
demands. Under this cry, meetings are called in 
your commercial cities, and resolutions adopted to 
'■'•suppress agitali.n among the 'ptopltP And the 
Secretary of Str.te, and distinguished Senators, 



write letters "io safe ^;,e TJuionP Dinners are eaten, 
and wine drunk, and speeches made, " to save thf. 
UnionP For the same purpose, the Secretary of 
State votes against the candidate of his own par- 
ty, and a distinguished Senator from a Western 
State threatens to leave the Whigs, with whom 
he has acted from early life. 

Sir, this clause of the Message has reference to 
that new party which is already in process of for- 
mation, and which is to be based upon the doc- 
trines of this Message — upon the policy of con- 
tinuing in force this Fugitive Law — the laws that 
sustain the slave trade upon our Southern coast, 
and in this District — and of opposing all efforts 
to exclude slavery from our Territories and from 
the District of Columbia. In short, sir, this new 
party is to oppose all attempts to separate the peo- 
ple of the free States and this Government from 
the support of that institution. 

I, sir, rejoice at the prospect of seeing every 
public man, and every elector of the nation, take 
his position either for FreedoiU or for Slavery. 
The President has come out boldly and manfully 
on the side of oppression, in favor of compelling 
the people of the North to become the catchers of 
Southern slaves. He calls on his friends to take 
po^^ition with him. They will do so. We shall 
soon have but two political parties. One will con- 
tend for the emancipation of the free States and 
this Government from the control of the Slave 
Power ; to restore vitality to the Constitution ; to 
give that instrument effect ; to maintain the rights 
of all the States under it ; to stcure all men under 
our exclusive jurisdiction in the enjoyment of life, 
liberty, and happiness. With Mr. Morris, and 
those who assisted in framing the Constitution, 
that party " never will concur in upholding domesi.ic 
slavtryP With Mr. Gerry, "while they have 
nothing to do with it in the States, they will lend 
no sanction to it/' With Mr. Sherman, they " can 
see no more propriety in seizing and surrendering a 
fugitive slave than a horse?' 

With those framers of the Constitution the 
party of Freedom will stand. These principles 
they will maintain and carry out ; they will sepa- 
rate and purify themselves from the sin and the 
shame of Slavery ; they will redeem this Govern 
ment from its support : they will leave it within 
the States where it exists. The judgment and 
conscience of the people are with us; they know 
cur doctrines to be correct. The popiikr heart 
be.ats for freedom. Party prejudices are giving 
way. Truth i^^ doing its legitimate work A great 
political revolution is going forward. No parti- 
san influence can stay its progress. The history 
of th'j last few months and years must bear to 
every reflecting mind a consciousness that the 
principles of justice, of righteousness, of humani- 
ty, must triumph. The moral sentiment of the 
nation demands the repeal of those acts of Con- 
gress which authorize and enjoin the commission 
of crimes. Thty n-ill he repealed, and the Govern- 
ment will be redeemed from its present position; 
and its laws and influence will be exerted for the 
benefit, for the elevation of man. 



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